THE city of Kermanshah in western Iran joined the national railway network on March 20, when the country’s president Dr Hassan Rouhani inaugurated the 110km line from Firuzan.

THE Indian government has allocated Rs 15bn ($US 2.78bn) from the federal budget for Indian Railways (IR) infrastructure upgrading projects in the Bangalore area, ahead of assembly elections in the state of Karnataka, which are scheduled for later this year.

IRELAND’s National Transport Authority (NTA) and Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) have announced details of a preferred route for MetroLink, a €3bn largely underground metro line for Dublin, which will provide a rail connection to the city’s international airport for the first time.

AUSTRIA’s new federal government published its 2018-2019 budget on March 21, revealing various cuts including a reduction in expenditure on railway infrastructure.

VÄSTTRAFIK, the public transport authority for the Swedish county of Västra Götaland, announced on March 23 that it has selected Bombardier Transportation Sweden for an SKr 3.8bn ($US 460m) contract to supply 40 200km/h regional EMUs.

GERMANY’s Federal minister for transport and digital infrastructure, Mr Andreas Scheuer, attended a groundbreaking ceremony at Memmingen on March 23 to mark the official launch of electrification works on the Munich - Lindau line.

TRENITALIA has exercised four options with Alstom worth a total of around €330m for 54 additional Pop regional EMUs.

THE mayor of Manchester Mr Andy Burnham confirmed on March 23 that £83m will be spent on the acquisition of additional trams for the Metrolink light rail network as part of the city’s Congestion Deal, which also includes a £160m investment in walking and cycling infrastructure.

THE Port of Rotterdam Authority has awarded a contract for the construction of a new freight line which will divert traffic away from the life-expired Caland vertical lift bridge.

GOVIA Thameslink Railway (GTR), in cooperation with Britain’s infrastructure manager Network Rail (NR) and Siemens, is claiming a world first by running the first train in passenger service on the central-London section of Thameslink using ATO over ETCS.